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“I don’t blame you for anything related to Maui,” she says, challenging me with her eyes.

“Oh… right.” I run a hand down my face. “Chicago.”

“Ding, ding, ding!” she says cheerily. “Chicago.”

Chapter 6

SCARLETT

Four years ago, Christmas Eve

Chicago

You’re telling me that we’re nailing the bad guys… at a holiday party… where the theme is Christmas villains?” I clarify with the primary undercover agent on the case, Special Agent Addison Lewis. “These people have a twisted sense of humor.”

Lewis connects the cords of his wire together and mutters, “Yeah, but dressing up like icons doesn’t make you one.”

He would know. He’s been undercover for two years now with the drug-trafficking organization throwing this party. Lewis and his partner on the case, Special Agent Sabrina Hall, have one final exchange to make. I’m in town from New York to play the role of Lewis’s girlfriend and to learn from more experienced undercover agents.

“We’ve already gathered enough highly incriminating evidence to put most of this group in jail. We just need this last one. The whole thing will be recorded—with audio and video—that will then be used as evidence in court sometime next year,” Lewis explains while he checks something on his laptop. He’s giddy. “Special Agents Bedford and Walker are on our earpieces, running the recording.”

It’s arrest day, so there’s a buzzy energy in the room. We’re in a hotel near where the party’s being held to get in costume and run through the plan. Nerves and anticipation flow through me in equal measure.

And then Nathan Lambros walks in, and suddenly annoyance is tossed into the mix, nearly extinguishing the other two emotions. He’s as tall as I remember him and a whole year older than when I last saw him at Quantico, but it looks like no time has passed at all, his features still soft on his twenty-seven-year-old face. His wavy, dark brown hair still falls wherever it wants to, and that smug smile he wears hasn’t budged.

When we went through training together, we were practically side by side for four months. I don’t know what he’s been up to for the past year, but there’s a deep desire to know what he’s done, what he’s seen. Instead of asking about any of that, though, I stand, square my shoulders, and make direct, unintimidated eye contact with him. “Lambros.”

Nathan’s carrying a beverage tray and rolling a trunk behind him. Of course he comes bearing coffees. Always trying to one-up me.

“Payne,” he says with a curt nod as he sets the tray down. He even put the little splash sticks in each cup so liquid wouldn’t slosh out.

“No need for all this!” I say sweetly. “I already brought coffee for everyone when I got here thirty minutes ago.”

“I got you an extra shot,” Nathan says. “I know you like that.”

I shake my head. “Your intel is bad. I’m up to two shots now. A lot can change in a year.”

“Two? I remember you were always trying to keep up,” he says, making a face like, That’s rough.

“Oh, I keep up. I just like the taste. Extra strong, like me.” I pause. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

“I like to find out who I’m working with ahead of time,” Nathan says. “It’s important to stay up to speed.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Is that something new you’re trying?”

Then Lewis laughs and claps. “I forgot about the rivalry,” he says to Hall.

She arches a brow. “It was these two?”

This gets our attention.

“These two, what?” Nathan asks, stepping away from me.

“Your reputations precede you,” Hall says. “I don’t think Quantico’s seen a rivalry that intense since…”

“Us.” Lewis grins. “Have you seen each other since graduation?”

“No,” we say at the same time, probably a little too fiery on both our parts.